In the several arts related to methods or manufacturing and construction of frames and frameworks
It is known in the manufacturing arts to employ longitudinally extending members such as metal straps laterally around a formation of staves or the like to hold the pieces together into a container such as a barrel.
It is known in the picture framing arts: to employ a cord or other longitudinally extending member as the means of holding an ornamental picture frame together; and to use clamping devices that employ a cable and fittings to hold framing members for fastening with nails or glue.
It is known in the building arts: to form rigid members into static frameworks by using fasteners, adhesives, welds, etc.; to use cables to permanently suspend structures such as bridges; to use a cable with fittings to hold concrete forms together while the concrete solidifies; and to incorporate a tensioned cable in a cementitious structural formation as a means of pre-stressing it against the forces of its load.
The methods common to static framing, especially the practice of using adhesives or metal fasteners to fix rigid framing members together into a rigid static construct, do not produce light-weight frameworks able to withstand forces of wind and weather, and do not make utilization of interchangeable parts practical. Additionally, conventional piercing metal fasteners damage the integrity of framing members, thereby reducing their strength and longevity, and glue technology is time- and labor-intensive, and thus expensive to utilize in manufacturing.
In light of the synergy achieved in pre-stressing of concrete by cable-induced compression and the resulting enhancement of the material's natural characteristics, the present invention proceeds to apply this principal of pre-stressing to modular framing. For reference in determining how best to adapt cable compression pre-stressing to such a system of modular framing, the methods of skeletal framing were examined. In skeletal frames, rigid bone members are held in a framework by tendons and tensioned muscles, with non-invasive joints at the intersection of bones. While the present invention is not intended to fulfill a requirement to produce a framework that is ambulatory or as flexible as, say, a human skeleton, it has drawn upon anatomical construction in determining the manner in which the tensioned cable loop engages the intersections of the rigid frame members of each framing module.